Ryan: Health reform hurting economy

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan framed health care costs and the president’s health law as key drivers of the nation’s economic and fiscal problems Monday, while warning that the president’s plan could lead to waiting lists for today’s seniors.

“If you look at what’s driving our debt, the explosive growth in spending is the result of health care costs spiraling out of control,” Ryan (R-Wis.) said at the Economic Club of Chicago in a speech designed to reshape the budget debate. “But a lot of it is simply due to the fact that health care costs are rising faster than the economy is growing.”

He criticized the Obama administration’s waivers to allow some businesses exemptions from the law, regulations that he said will stifle business, and the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel created to control Medicare spending.

“The president’s plan begins with trillions of dollars in higher taxes, and it relies on a plan to control costs in Medicare that would give a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats in Washington the power to deeply ration care,” he said, referring to the IPAB in prepared remarks. “This would disrupt the lives of those currently in retirement and lead to waiting lists for today’s seniors.”

The speech was sharper than his critique of the health law to constituents during his town hall meetings last month — adding the threat of “waiting lists” and administration waivers to the debate. Most of his themes, however, were similar to the ones he has used before.

Homing in on an issue that’s likely to be picked up by other Republicans, Ryan said that when the country can’t borrow any more money to issue new taxes, “we’ll have to give a board of unelected bureaucrats the power to tell you what kind of treatments you can and can’t receive.”

“Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers. Their plan is to give government the power to deny care to seniors,” he said.

Reviving an attack other Republicans have used against the health law, Ryan criticized the administration’s waivers that have exempted some businesses from the law’s restrictions on annual benefit limits.

“So far, over 1,000 businesses and organizations have been granted waivers from the law’s onerous mandates,” he said. “These waivers may prevent job losses now, but they do not guarantee relief in the future, nor do they help those firms that lack the connections to lobby for waivers. This is no way to create jobs in America. True, bipartisan health care reform starts by repealing this partisan law.”

Ryan chastised the budget debate for devolving into a “game of green-eyeshade arithmetic, with many in Washington — including the president — demanding that we trade ephemeral spending restraints for large, permanent tax increases.”

He said the debate overlooks the importance of economic growth and establishes a framework that “accepts ever-higher taxes and bureaucratically rationed health care as givens.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:47 p.m. on May 16, 2011.